Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Prayer

When we pray are we praying with a sincere heart or are we just praying? Maybe you have told someone you would pray for them and then got busy and forgot. When you remembered you said a hurried prayer. I have done this and I am not proud of myself for doing it. Or are you praying because everyone around you are praying so you think it would look better to be praying.

Luke 18:10-14 is a good example of two men that had gone up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other man a publican.

The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself. He thanked God that he was not as other men. He gave a few examples and then said as the publican. He didn't acknowledge that he was sinful. He exalted himself by telling that he fast twice a week and gave tithes of all he possessed. He was not praying with a sincere heart.

The publican was standing away from the Pharisee but wouldn't raise up his eyes to heaven but hit his breast asking God to be merciful to him, as he was a sinner. The publican was conscious of his sin and guilt so he turned to God for forgiveness and mercy. This man prayed with great sincerity.

So, why do we pray? When we pray we can renew our trust in the Lord. When we pray a peace will come to us like no other peace, we just feel relieved and know God will take care of everything. In the time of need we receive mercy. We know that all things work out for the glory of God.

These two men prayed but with two different attitudes. We don't need to stand around as the Pharisee did, exalting ourselves, we just need to pray with a sincere heart.

Which one do you pray like?

3 comments:

Jenifer Metzger said...

This is really good. I used to pray because it was the thing to do. I wasn't putting my all into it. But when I started putting more effort into praying and truly spending time with God, then I truly fell in love with Him and the prayers were more meaningful. The more I pray, the deeper I fall in love. Now, praying excites me!

As for praying for other people, when someone asks me to pray I have take time to pray right then and there because I will forget. I also make a note of the request to continue to pray for it during my quiet times.

Thank you for this post.

Debi said...

So many times our prayers are 'voice' prayers. I long for the time when my prayers are always 'heart' prayers! I try, but, alas, as a human, I fail...and fail miserably! Thank you for the reminder that we need to pray with our all and not with just our voice!

Mandy said...

This is so good, I try to pray with my whole heart sometimes I fail miserably but I know as I go deeper with God He'll show me how to pray. Thank you for this!